The Life of a Slayer and Those Around Her
by Tiffany Pryde
Summary: What if Buffy had a sister when she moved to Sunnydale? Follow the life of Buffy and her sister Cora as they struggle against fighting evil and surviving their teenage lives as well. Follows the TV series episodes. Not word by word, things will be changed, and some storylines will change and I will also make a few of my own storylines, hope you enjoy. Rating may change.
1. Welcome To Hellmouth Part 1

**In this story my character Cora is Buffy's sister. I'll be following the TV series by episode. Not word by word, and the plotlines might be a bit different to fit my character in, I also might make a few storylines up. If you don't like then please don't read. Other than that, I hope you enjoy, and comment! **

My name is Cora Summers. I'm 15 years old, and a freshman this year. I have an older sister, Buffy, who is 16, and my mom, Joyce. My parents are divorced. Anyways, Buffy, me, and my mom, just moved to Sunnydale California from Los Angeles, mainly because my sister burnt down the gym at her old high school. Mom thought it was because she was involved in the wrong crowd, but I knew the truth, Buffy is a vampire slayer. She only burnt down the gym because it was full of vampires, although, she could've thought of a better way to deal with it.

This morning is our first day of school. I woke up first. Buffy's room was right next to mine. I knocked on it. "Hey Buffy… Wake up." I said with a yawn. She didn't answer. "Buffy!" I called a bit louder and opened the door. She was tossing and turning. I went over and shook her. "Argh!" She screamed and jolted up. I was taken aback.

"Watch it!" I told her impatiently. "It's time for school." She groaned.

"Ugh, I don't want to go to school." She moaned. I rolled my eyes.

"Neither do I." I told her. She glared.

"You're not the one that burnt down the gym." She muttered. I raised an eyebrow.

"That's true, but you did… People will be just as cautious around me as they will around you… Since we're sisters." I stated.

"As if I'd let you hang out with me." She smirked. I frowned.

"Why?" I asked her. She bit her lip.

"I was kidding." She murmured. With that she got up and we went downstairs to eat. I just had toast, then mom drove us to school.

"Well here we are girls." She said stopping in front of the building. "Think positive." She told Buffy. "Just don't get caught up in the wrong group again, and everything will be just fine…" She said. Then she looked at both of us. "And look out for each other." She added. I nodded. Buffy rolled her eyes.

"No problem mom, I'll look after my baby sister." She said in a fake tone. I glared at her. Mom just sighed.

"I'll see you two after school." She said. I gave her a hug and kiss goodbye. So did Buffy.

Then we got out. We walked into the crowded school. "Where do we go?" I asked her confused.

"The office." She said. I rolled my eyes.

"Where is the office?" I asked. She turned to face me.

"I don't know. I'm new here too." She said sarcastically. I looked around. Then I saw a door that said "Office" on it.

"I found it." I said gesturing for her to follow. We walked into the office. "How may I help you two girls?" The secretary asked peering over her glasses at us.

I opened my mouth to talk, but Buffy elbowed me.

"Uhm, hi. I'm Buffy Summers and this is my sister Cora." She said. "We're new here." She told her. The secretary nodded.

"Ah, right… The principal is waiting for you." She said. We smiled and thanked her. Then we walked into the principal's office.

"Sit down girls." The principal said. "I am Principal Flutie." He introduced himself, sounding quite proud. As we sat down we introduced ourselves.

"Well I wanted to inform you, Buffy, Cora, that no matter what happened at whatever school you attended previously, it doesn't matter to us, you start with a clean slate, and we do not judge whatso-" He stopped, he was looking through the papers. "YOU BURNT DOWN YOUR GYMNASIUM!?" He said all of a sudden. I jumped.

"Actually, that was her." I said, nodding to Buffy. She glared at me.

"Principal Flutie…" Buffy began. He stopped her.

"Everyone is free to call me Bob." He said.  
She started over, "Bob…" She began again.

"But they don't." He said. She bit her lip, getting annoyed.

"You don't understand, that gym was full of vampi-" I elbowed her. She cleared her throat, "Asbestos." She said quickly. He raised an eyebrow and looked at me. I shrugged.

"No clue." I mouthed to him. He shook his head.

"Right, well, as I was saying… This… Doesn't matter, you have a clean slate… Now let's try to keep it that way, shall we?" He asked. I nodded, as did Buffy.

"Great, now here are your schedules." He handed each of us a sheet of paper. We have 7 class periods a day.

My first hour was Math, 2nd, English, 3rd, History, 4th, Science, Lunch, 5th, PE, 6th Art, and 7th, shop. I had PE, Art, and Science with Buffy.

"Thank you Mr. Flutie." I said and stood up. Buffy did the same, and then we went out of the office, as we were heading out Buffy ran into some girl, and dropped everything out of her bag.

"Watch it." The girl said and kept walking. I glared.

"Snob." I muttered, we leant down to pick up the stuff.

Then out of nowhere a boy appeared, he was kind of cute, "Let me help you with that." He said to buffy. She smiled at him, "Thanks." She said. He smiled.

"I'm Xander." He told her. She smiled.

"Oh, uh, I'm Buffy Summers." She said shaking his head, "And this is my sister, Cora." She said gesturing to me. I nodded at him and smiled.

"Nice to meet you." I said. He smiled at both of us.

"You too." Xander blushed.

"So what brings you here?" He said turning his attention back to Buffy. He face palmed, "School… Duh." He answered his own question. "Sorry." He muttered, embarrassed. She laughed and said it was okay.

"Uh, Buffy… I'm gonna head to class." I told her. She nodded and waved me on. "Okay then. Good luck to you too." I said walking away.

Then her and Xander kept on talking. As I was walking, I walked into a girl, she was really popular and very pretty.

"Sorry." I said and went to walk around her.

She held out her arm, "You're new aren't you? Well, let me tell you, there are some rules here at Sunnydale. What I say goes. I'm Cordelia Chase, pretty much the ruler of this school." She said superiorly. Then she shoved me, "Go hang out with that loser over there." She said, pointing to a girl with long red hair, the girl looked rather dorky. I didn't care though. "You should fit right in with her." She said in a fake sweet tone. I glared. "Fine…" I muttered and walked away towards the red head.

"Uhm… hey." I said to her shyly. She looked up from the book she was reading, we were in the hallway, apparently classes hadn't started yet.

"Oh, hi." She said nervously.

"I'm Cora." I introduced myself, "Cora Summers. I'm new." I said. She smiled. "Oh, that's cool." She said. We talked a little bit longer, I found out she was in Buffy's grade. I was happy, it seemed I had made a friend. She picked up her books. "I'm gonna head to class…" She said, it turned out we were both in the same math class. I was in sophomore math since I'm really good at math. "Wanna walk with me?" She asked kindly. I nodded and smiled.

"Sure." We headed off, she then stopped, "Gonna get a drink first." She told me and went to the water fountain. I stood there waiting. Just then Buffy and that girl named Cordelia walked over.

"Uhm, did I say you could drink that?" Cordelia asked. "Sorry." She turned to Buffy. "This school is full of losers. That one is new." She pointed to me, "And this one… This one needs to move." She said shoving Willow and knocking her books out of her hands. Buffy gasped and looked at me and Willow. I raised an eyebrow.

I wanted her to say something or to at least stand up for me. She didn't though, she just stood there. People laughed at me and Willow. "Let's go…" I muttered to Willow. With one last glare I turned and walked off with Willow.

"That one girl, the one next to Cordelia. That's my sister, Buffy." I told her. Willow raised her eyebrows.

"Really? You look nothing alike." She said. I had brown hair and I just wear t-shirts and jeans, no makeup. Buffy has pretty blonde hair; she wears makeup, and has really cute clothes. I laughed and shrugged.

"That never was my style." I told Willow as we went into the math classroom. Our teacher was boring, I didn't pay much attention to the lesson, all I know is we had 15 problems to work out and have turned in by tomorrow morning. The rest of the day went by slowly, I ignored Buffy in science class and sat by Willow, that Xander guy was also in there, he turned out to be a close friend of Willow's, but he went ahead and sat with Buffy. Then came lunch, Willow and I went through the line together. I grabbed a tray with pizza and a salad on it, she got a cheeseburger and fries. Then we each grabbed a juice and headed outside. We sat down and started eating. Suddenly Xander and another guy appeared.

"Oh." She said. "This is Xander and Jesse." She said introducing us. I smiled at them, and explained I already met Xander. Jesse grins.

"How do you like it here?" He asked, attempting to flirt. I shrugged, "It's okay I guess." I said. Xander elbowed Jesse.

"Keep it cool, man." He advised. They looked like they were buddies. Then Buffy came over. I glared and turned away from her.

"Uhm… Hi, guys… Can I sit here?" She asked. I said no, but the others looked at me strangely, and then I reluctantly agreed.

"Listen…" She began to say to Willow and me, "I'm sorry about what happened with Cordelia… She was just really nice…" She said, "To me at least." She added.

Willow said Cordelia's been torturing here since they were in 2nd grade. I told Buffy about what Cordelia said to me. Then Xander and Jesse all put in that she isn't nice to hang around. Although Jesse has an extreme crush on her. Then, speak of the devil, Cordelia walks on over. "Are these losers bothering you?" She asked Buffy.

"Uhm… No." Buffy said shaking her head, "And they're not losers, and that one loser… The new one." She said pointing to me, "Happens to be my sister." She said, so now she was standing up for me.

Cordelia rolled her eyes, "Yeah, whatever…" She said and changed the subject. "So, PE was canceled next hour she told us.

"Why?" Jesse asked.

"There's an extreme dead guy in one of the lockers." She explained.

"Eww." I said shuddering. The other all agreed, and then suddenly they all started talking at once.

The Buffy interrupted, "Where there marks on the body?" She asked. I raised an eyebrow.

"Buffy?" I asked her nervously. She ignored me.

Cordelia looked at Buffy strangely. "Uh, I don't know. I didn't ask." She said. She then added, "Look, either you hang out with me, or _them._" She said. Buffy nodded.

"Alright then… Them." She said. Cordelia glared.

"Maybe I was wrong about you, maybe you're a loser too." She said and walked away. I smiled at Buffy and the others started thanking her.

She brushed off our thank you's and grabbed my arm. "Let's go!" She said and pulled me. "Uh, Buffy." I started to say but she tugged.

"I'll see you guys later." I said to Xander, Jesse, and Willow. Then we left.

"Where are we going?" I asked her.

"To the locker room!" She said excitedly.

"What? Why?!" I asked.

"To look at the body." She said as if I should've known.

"Ugh… Why is it that my sister had to be the chosen one?" I muttered putting air quotes around chosen one. She turned around and looked at me.

"Stop whining." She ordered. "Let's go." She said and we went into the locker room. It was blocked off, but no one was watching, so we snuck in.

"There's the body!" She said walking over to it. I followed her. She pulled the cover off of the body. I cringed. I hate the sight of dead people. She looked around on the body, turns out that a vampire bit him. Or at least that's what Buffy thinks.

"Just as I thought." She muttered to me. She quickly explained that she had been in the library earlier and the creepy librarian had showed her a book entitled Vampyr. I nodded.

"Uh… okay?" I asked.

"That's a bit odd don't you think?" She asked me impatiently. I shrugged.

"Don't you use your brain?" She asked angrily. I glared.

"Yeah, but I'm not the chosen one." I said. "It's your problem not mine." I told her. Of course I didn't mean it, I would always be there for my sister. I was just getting tired of her always being mean to me, she seriously just treats me like a punching back.

"Mom said to look out for each other." She said quietly. I nodded.

"I know…" I muttered.

"Then let's try to get along, at least for mom." She said. I bit my lip and then nervously agreed.

"Alright, let's go." We went back to the library. Buffy did all the talking. The man that was the creepy librarian introduced himself as Rupert Giles, he told us to call him Giles.

"I am your watcher…" He explained to Buffy hastily, and told her that he was there to guide her and help her on her journey. Then Buffy had an outburst.

"I refuse to be The Slayer!" She said angrily. "I lost all my friends and got kicked out of my old school because of this stupid slayer thing." She said furiously.

Giles was unsure what to say.

"You don't really have a choice." He said nervously. She glared.

"Well can't it be someone else?" She pointed at me, "Why not her?" she asked. Giles shrugged.

"I don't know! Fate called you! Not your sister." He said sternly. Buffy rolled her eyes and put her hands behind her head, she was really stressed, I could tell.

Just then Xander appeared from behind a bookshelf. He looked pretty freaked out and tried to comprehend the fact that Buffy was a slayer.

"You can't tell anyone." Buffy said immediately. He put his hands up in defense of himself.

"I won't… I won't…" He said assuring her.

"So what do we do?" He asked then.

"_We?_" She said confused. "What do you mean we? It's not "we" it's I." She said matter-of-factly. I rolled my eyes.

"Buffy you can't really expect to do this on your own?" I asked her. She glared.

"Every other slayer has, so can I." She said bitterly.

"Maybe every other slayer didn't have someone who cared enough to help." I said hesitantly.

She looked at me, she knew she had been really mean to me in the past years, she would punch me, kick me, make fun of me, everything, but despite all of that I know she cares about me. "Thanks Cora." She said.

"You…" She said turning to Xander, "I can't put youin danger, it wouldn't be fair." She stated. "I think you should just go…" She said. He looked sad, and then reluctantly left.

"Now, if you'd excuse me, I'm going to go try and live a normal teenage life." She said to Giles. She walked out of the library without waiting for me. I looked at Giles apologetically.

"Sorry… she's in a mood." I said and then quickly went after her. The rest of the day went by and then it was the end, Buffy and I walked home.

"Let's go to the Bronze tonight…" Buffy stated as we got home and went into her room.

"The what?" I asked confused.

"It's like a club for teens, in town." She explained. "I can drive us." She said.

"Um, okay, sure…" I said. Then our mom walked in.

"How was school today girls?" She asked us. I smiled.

"Great." I said.

"Awesome." Buffy said. Mom smiled at us.

"That's good to hear." She said, then Buffy told her our plans.

"Oh, okay then, well, be back by midnight." She said smiling. "Have fun." She said and walked out. I went next door to my room and finished my math homework then Buffy barged in.

"Ever heard of knocking?" I asked her annoyed. She glared at me.

"Yeah yeah. It's time to go." She said, it was 7:00 PM. I nodded.

"Alright." We stopped by McDonald's on our way there. We both got a McChicken with French fries and a coke. I ate quickly.

"Pig." She teased me.

"I'm hungry." I said in defense of myself. She rolled her eyes. We parked at the Bronze in the parking lot and were about to go in when someone jumped down from the top of the building. Buffy pushed me aside and got ready to fight.

She kicked him and sent him flying backwards. She got out her stake, just in case.

"Woah, woah, woah." He said. "Chill." He said. "I'm here to warn you." He said, getting up, rubbing his back, he had been knocked against a metal dumpster.

"Warn me what?" Buffy hissed, still not letting her defenses down.

"About the hellmouth." He said seriously.

"The what?" Buffy asked, circling him.

"The hellmouth. There is one, right here, underneath Sunnydale. They barriers between our worlds are weak. Demons, vampires, and other creatures from hell are able to come into our world as much as they like." He explained. "That's what a hellmouth is. This one is about to open, it's almost time for the harvest, soon there will be a hoard of vampires here to feed. They'll take over, unless you help stop it." He said urgently.

"Why… why me?" She said looking up at the sky as if talking to God. "Fine, what can I do to stop it?" She said after a moment. He sighed and looked around.

"Take this." He said, giving her a large cross pendant. She took it and put it up.

"Thanks for your advise." She muttered to him. He smirked at her, and with that he disappeared.

"This place is so weird…" Buffy said to me.

"You're telling me, we came here to get away from this slayer stuff, but it seems to follow you." I said, she rolled her eyes.

"No kidding." She said. We went into the Bronze. "Hey, look, it's Willow." I said. I started to walk over to her.

"Hey Willow." I said smiling. She smiled back.

"Hey Cora, Hey Buffy." Buffy smiled at her too.

"Why are you sitting here alone?" Buffy asked, I shot her a glance that she promptly ignored.

"I don't know… guess I just don't have many friends." She shrugged.

"Well, you should seize this moment to go make some. Aside from us. Find yourself a guy, dance. You could be dead tomorrow." She said. I elbowed her.

"Buffy." I hissed. She elbowed me back harder; I decided not to push her buttons.

"Thanks, Buffy." Willow said nervously, about Buffy's advice. Then Buffy looked up, she nudged me to look up too. I saw she was staring at Giles.

"I'll be right back." She said to us.

"You don't have to come back." Willow said seriously. Buffy raised an eyebrow.

"I'll be back." She repeated, and went up to talk to Giles. I couldn't tell what they were saying, 5 minutes later, a guy came over and asked Willow to dance. She promptly accepted and grinned at me. I sighed.

I sat down and just looked around. Then another 5 minutes later Buffy came up, she grabbed my arm sharply.

"We have to go." She hissed at me.

"Why?" I asked.

"That guy, Willow left with. He's a vampire! Why'd you let her go with him?" She asked me furiously. I opened my eyes in horror.

"I-I didn't know, Buffy!" I said fearfully, afraid she was gonna snap out on me.

She rolled her eyes. "Well come on!" She said and pulled me, once again to the door.

As we exited a girl scared us, Buffy pulled out her stake and pinned the girl to the wall by her neck, it turned out to be Cordelia. Buffy gasped and put her down.

"Uh… I can explain!" Buffy said in shock. "Later!" She said, and we both ran.

"She may act evil, but I don't think she's a vampire." I muttered to Buffy. Buffy laughed.

"You've got that right." She said. I then said.

"She's going to tell everyone, you know that right? Our reputations are already going to be ruined." I said sadly.

"For once I wish I wasn't the kid everyone was calling weird or making fun of." I said. She bit her lip.

"I know how you feel." She said. I glared.

"Do you now? You were like Miss Popular at your other school. Everyone worshiped you. You were like Cordelia Chase back in Los Angeles." I spat out. It was her turn to glare.

"Okay, I didn't know what it felt like then, but I do now. I'm sorry." She said. She sounded sincere, so I decided to just drop the subject. She was going to change it anyways.

"Where would a vampire take a girl anyways?" She asked, talking more to herself then me.

"Uh… I don't know." I shrugged.

"The graveyard!" She said suddenly like a light bulb had lit up above her head.

"That's a good place for a romantic date." I said sarcastically. I didn't really like this being Buffy's sidekick thing. On our way to the graveyard we saw Xander.

"Well if it isn't the vampire slaying chick." He said teasingly.

"Hey, heard you almost slayed Cordelia. Pretty awesome." He said grinning.

Buffy rolled her eyes. "We need your help." She said excitedly.

"Why?" Xander said spitefully. "Thought you didn't want me to get "hurt"." He said putting air quotes around the word hurt. She sighed heavily.

"That was before the vampire kidnapped Willow." Buffy said.

Xander gasped. "W-what?" He stuttered.

"Someone let her leave with a vampire guy." Buffy said and shot a look at me. Xander turned to me and looked really pissed off.

"I didn't know!" I said in defense of myself.

"Yeah yeah." Buffy said, once again. "Are you gonna help us or not?" She said to Xander.

"I'm in." He said. Buffy filled him in on how we were going to the graveyard. Once we got there we looked around. When we get there it looked pretty dead, but it wasn't. It turned out that there was this Master, like, vampire master, that ruled the underworld or something like that. I don't know, all of this reminded me of star wars for some reason.

"The crypt." Buffy said excitedly and lead us to it.

"What?" I hissed. "Uhm, how about I stay outside and, uh, keep watch!" I said, hoping I wouldn't have to go in there. I don't like being so close to dead people.

"Nice try." Buffy said, "You're coming." She grabbed me by my shirt and led me in. When we got in there, we weren't alone. Willow was in there with the vampire who she had met at the crypt, he and another vampire, this one was a girl, were hovering over her, she looked terrified, she was whimpering.

Then, I looked to the side, and there was Jesse, lying there semi-conscious. He had been bitten.

"Well well well, more snacks." Said the female vampire turning around to face us. The male one turned around as well.

"Now now, Darla." He said soothingly, "First we shall introduce ourselves, it's only right before we, have someone for dinner." He said, chuckling at his own feeble joke.

"I am Luke." He said. "This is my good friend, Darla. And you, you are our dinner." He said to all of us at once, we were all scared by now.

"Get Jesse out!" Buffy ordered Willow and Xander. They didn't waste time arguing and did as they were told.

"We'll take care of these guys." She said.

"We?" I asked her. She elbowed me and glared.

"Here's your chance to do something right." She said and gave me one of her stakes, apparently she always has an extra one.

I decided to go for the girl one, she was trying to go after Willow, Xander and Jesse.

"Not so fast!" I said, running up to her I kicked her in the face. She went flying back into a tombstone.

"Nice kick… But if you wanna play rough, I'll show you rough." She said, punching me first in the stomach, then in the face. I was temporarily affected, but decided to shrug it off. I punched her in the face. This pissed her off. I grabbed her arm and tried to stake her in the heart, only to have her smack the wooden stake out of my hand, out of my reach.

"Heh." I laughed nervously. "Just my luck." I muttered. I realized Willow, Jesse, and Xander were trying to avoid like 2 other vampires, but I could only take on one at a time.

She grabbed me by my neck and threw me, hard back into a tree.

"Argh…" I grunted as I fell to the ground. I staggered and got up, trying to go back after her, she kicked me down again.

"It's time you go to bed!" She said, and dragged me by my hair to a newly dug grave, someone was going to be buried tomorrow, she threw me down in there. I was knocked unconscious.

"Sleep tight." I heard her say. As I was in my comatose state, things were vague, I couldn't remember anything. I just hoped that Buffy was having more luck then me.


	2. (Announcement)

This is what Cora looks like: . /-v4rEI0be2kw/UENiAe7dM3I/AAAAAAAAC3I/OrUnjLZt3GY/ s1600/Kristen+Stewart+Without+Makeup+


	3. The Harvest

I wasn't sure how long I had been out. All I knew is that I had a massive headache. I got up wearily. I looked up.

"Great, I'm literally 6 feet under." I muttered to myself. I knew the only way out was to climb. So I started to do just that. I dug my nails deep into the soil and tried to scurry up the hole. It didn't work that well, all I did was cause some dirt to fall in on me. I got a mouth full of it too. I spit it out and stepped back.

I wanted to call for Buffy and the others, then they could help me, but I wasn't sure if that would be such a good idea. I might attract the vampires instead.

I decided to risk it.

"Help!" I called. "Someone help!" I screamed. I looked up to see if anyone came, there was Buffy, Xander, and Willow standing at the top of the hole.

"This isn't a good time to be taking a nap." Xander said, kidding around. I laughed.

"Haha, very funny." I muttered. "Now help me get out!" I said.

"Take off your jackets." Buffy ordered Xander and Willow as she took off her own jacket.

"But it's chilly." Willow objected at first. Buffy shot her a glance that said. "Now isn't the time."

Willow took off her jacket without another word. Xander and Willow handed Buffy their jackets and she tied the sleeves together into a tight knot, then she tied her own into a tight know with the sleeve.

"I hope this works." She said as she threw the "rope" down to me. I grabbed on to it and her, Xander, and Willow helped pull as I climbed up the wall.

It worked, I stood up next to them.

"Thanks." I said, everyone smiled.

"Now what?" I asked. "And where's Jesse?" I said nervously.

Xander looked pretty upset. "That one vampire, Darla, took him." He said sadly. "We'll get him back though, right Buffy?" He said hopefully. I noticed Buffy hesitate.

"We'll try." She said.

"Hope he hasn't become vampire food by now." I said, I meant to think it but I accidentally said it out loud. Buffy elbowed my ribs.

"You aren't helping." She said angrily to me. Xander looked like he was going to faint. Willow didn't look too good either. They were both close friends with Jesse.

"We'll find him." I said reassuringly.

"I hope…" Xander said and his voice trailed on. We all decided to go home and get some rest.

The next day we went to the library and Giles and Buffy explained all of the stuff about vampires, demons, and slayers to Xander and Willow. They were confused at first, but who isn't? Then Buffy decided to track down the hideout for the vampires.

"Willow, you're a computer person…" Buffy said, "See what you can find about the tunnels and where they begin at." She said skeptically. Willow nodded her head.

"On it." She said professionally. I guess it made her feel special, which is a good thing. I could tell she didn't feel special a lot. She looked it up and found out that Buffy could probably get underground to the tunnels through the crypt.

"When do we go?" Xander asked.

"We?" Buffy said, once again. His face fell.

"Jesse's my best friend! I have to help!" He whined.

She sighed. "Look, I know this must be hard for you. But you're not trained, you can get seriously injured if you come with us." She said.

"Us?" I said. She looked at me.

"Uh, yeah, you're coming with me." She said as if I should've known that.

"Why do you drag me along on these crazy adventures with you?" I asked bitterly. She smiled.

"Mom told me that where I go you have to go." She said in a false sweet tone.

"Yeah, but that was when I was 6." I told her.

"Not much has changed then, has it?" She asked. I rolled my eyes and glared.

"Guys!" Giles said. "Let's focus on the issue at hand." He said.

"Buffy and Cora will go into the tunnel to retrieve Jesse, Willow and I will stay here in the library and continue researching, and Xander, uh… I guess you can stay here with us." Giles said shrugging.

"Fine…" He grunted and sat down.

"Let's go." Buffy said. Her and I left the library and went outside. We were getting ready to go out the fence. I realized I should be in Science right now.

"Buffy, mom isn't going to be happy whenever she finds out we've been skipping classes." I said wearily.

"Well what's more important right now? Saving lives or making mom happy?" She asked impatiently.

"Uhm… is that a trick question, I don't like when mom's unhappy… You know what they say, when mother's not happy, nobody's happy." I said matter-of-factly.

She just sighed heavily.

"I dare you to tell her and see what happens." Buffy threatened me.

"I won't tell her…" I said defensively. "I'm just saying." I muttered. She was about to say something else when we were interrupted.

We were standing by the gate about ready to go out when we were approached by Mr. Flutie.

"Where do you girls think you're going?" He asked suspiciously.

"Uhm… We have a free period right now." Buffy lied. "And we're going to get some… books, for Giles, the librarian." She said, thinking quickly.

"Ah, I see. Well free period or not, students are not permitted to leave campus while school is in session." He said, and locked the gate and walked away. We pretended to go back inside, but when he was gone Buffy jumped the fence and I scurried up it, I'm not as athletic as her. I fell down and skinned my knee.

"Damn it…" I muttered. She looked at it quickly.

"You'll survive." She said.

"But it's bleeding really bad an-" I started, Buffy stopped me and pulled out a sharp knife she had in her bag.

"How about I cut it off?" She said menacingly. I bit my lip.

"Uh, no thanks." I said. She grinned.

"Thought so." She put the knife away and we made our way to the crypt. When we got there we were just about to enter the tunnel, when that stranger that we had met yesterday night at the Bronze came out of nowhere.

"What do you want?" She said, getting into her fighting position.

"First I'd like to properly introduce myself, I'm Angel." He said courteously.

"Buffy…" She muttered. "My sister, Cora." She said pointing to me.

"Pleasure." He said and changed the subject.

"You want into the master's lair…" He said.

"Was it obvious?" Buffy said sarcastically.

Angel ignored her sarcasm, I just realized he was probably the only one that would be able to help us right about now. Buffy should be nicer, but it's in her nature to be mean.

"Well, I know where it is." He said, he gave us directions, said to go straight into the tunnel, take the first left, and keep going along the path, we should end up there.

We promptly thanked him and went on our way.

Just as we got into the tunnel I could've swore I heard him say "Good luck."

"Alright, this way." Buffy said leading the way, and then she stopped to give me a stake.

"This place gives me the creeps." I said, barely above a whisper, but it echoed.

"Shut it." She hissed silently as we continued going. Then I heard something behind us, footsteps.

We turned around abruptly and held out our weapons, ready to attack if necessary.

I was relieved when I saw it was just Xander.

"You're following us?" Buffy said to him in disbelief.

"I told you, Jesse's my best friend, besides that I want to help." He said boldly.

"We can use any extra help." I offered in his favor to Buffy. She looked at us.

"Fine. But follow my lead." She warned him.

He smiled and was about to say something, but she signaled to be quiet.

As we crept forward I saw something huddled in a corner.

"Is that a vampire?" I whispered.

"No… That's Jesse!" Xander said and ran forward.

"Hey buddy!" Xander said as he reached his friend.

"Xander, man am I glad to see you!" He said excitedly. "And you guys too!" He said as he got up, but he was chained to the wall. I was pretty happy to see him unhurt and alive.

"I got this." Buffy said as she sawed the chains. Jesse rubbed his wrists as the chains dropped.

"That feels so much better." He said. "Quick, we've gotta get out of here!" He said.

"But how?" I asked. He bit his lip.

"I know a short cut, this is where they brought me in yesterday." He said as he led us down another tunnel, opposite of where we came in.

It didn't take long for the vampires to realize Jesse had escaped, we were being chased.

"This way!" Shouted Jesse. He led us to a small room with a metal door.

"In here!" He hollered. I wasted no time and ran into the room, as did Buffy, and Xander. However the vampires were not far behind us and they tried to open the door as we all pushed up against it to close it. Well, by we I mean Xander, Buffy, and myself. I realized Jesse wasn't doing anything.

"Hey, what are you doin-" I started to ask, but when I saw him. I screamed.

"H-he's a vampire!" I stuttered. He started towards me but I kicked him back.

"NO!" Xander said jumping between us. "Don't kill him!" He said to me urgently.

"Jesse, man, it's me, Xander." He said hopefully.

"I know who you are." He spat out. "And do you know who I was?" He asked dangerously.

"Yeah, my best friend." Xander said, sounding confused.

"I was a loser, now… Now I'm full of power! I can do anything I want. Anything!" He said, and then he tried to bite Xander.

"No!" I said jumping in front of him, I pushed him backwards and he hit his head, but that didn't stop him. Buffy was still trying to keep the door closed; we could take one vampire, but not 10 at a time.

I grabbed Jesse by the scruff of his neck and threw him towards the door. I pushed him the rest of the way out, Buffy then pushed the door as closed as she could get it.

Then turned to Xander. "We need to find a way out." He looked up.

"There!" He said, there was a manhole above us. "Come on!" He said, I stood on his shoulder and pushed the manhole open and climbed through it.

"Buffy!" I heard him shout. She looked back and ran to us, Xander climbed up next, I grabbed his arms and tugged him, then Buffy was coming. We both grabbed one of her arms and pulled.

However a vampire had her leg. "Argh!" She screamed as it dug it's nails in her ankle. Then the sun came out from behind a cloud and poured out it's light on the vampires hand, it started to sizzle, the vampires dispersed.

"Wow…" Xander said. He was in shock. "Wow…" He repeated.

I looked at Buffy for help.

"He's… Jesse… vampire… we've gotta help him guys." He said to us in a desperate voice.

"Xander, I'm sorry, but… Jesse is gone." Buffy said sorrowfully.

"No he's not! We all saw him!" He object angrily.

I held my hand up. "He's here physically, but he's a vampire now, he has no soul, no feelings, no heart…" I said as we continued walking.

"For once… she's right." Buffy stated. I didn't even feel like arguing with her.

"I can't believe this." Xander said as he let a few tears fall. "I won't believe it!" He said. We looked at each other and decided to just leave the subject alone for now. We got back to the library and confronted Giles and Willows, explaining the situation.

"That's… That's too bad." Giles said sounding genuinely remorseful. Willow got teary eyed.

Xander and Willow embraced for a moment, Buffy, Giles and I just stood there awkwardly.

Whenever they parted Giles explained who The Master was. "See, he arrived here in Sunnydale nearly 60 years ago to open the hellmouth, the portal that leads into the demonic world, and into our world. If it is opened demons can enter our world if they please. However, an earthquake stopped The Master from completing his task, and he is now trapped in an underground church. Tonight is a once in a century happening called The Harvest." He continued, "The vampire you were fighting." He said to Buffy, "Is now known as "The Vessel". The more blood Luke drinks, the more powerful The Master gets, if he drinks enough blood… The Master will be able to break out of the Underground Church." He concluded. "And that would be bad." I smirked at the last part of his history lesson.

"This isn't the time to be laughing, Cora." Buffy scolded. I glared at her, she's always bossing me around and stuff. Tries to think she's better than me.

I just ignored it. "So now what?" I asked.

"Well, The Vessel is going to be somewhere crowded, so he can kill lots of people and drink their blood." Giles said.

"So what place is crowded?" Buffy asked.

Xander and Willow looked at each other, they knew this town better than us.

"The Bronze is usually packed." Xander said thoughtfully.

"We can all go there tonight." Willow said.

"That's a good idea." Buffy said. "I'll kill The Vessel, you guys worry about getting everyone out safely." She ordered.

"Sounds like a plan." I said and stood up from the chair. This all was kind of exciting I thought, maybe, maybe just once, I would get in there and something right.

It was about time for school to be ending, so we all headed home, agreeing to meet back up at 7:00 at the Bronze.

Buffy and I got home and went to our rooms, did our homework, and other chores.

I went to Buffy's room and walked in.

"I thought we talked about you just barging in here." She said without looking up, she was digging through her closet chest, it had weapons in it.

"Does this look okay to wear?" She said holding out a nice blouse and jeans with a jacket.

I chuckled. "Yeah, this isn't exactly an occasion to get all dressed up about." I reminded her, I thought it was funny how she tried to look her best at all times, even if it is to go out and kill vampires.

"I just want to look nice." She said grinning.

"Well, you look fine." I told her. "What about me?" I asked. I was still wearing a plain t-shirt, jeans, hoodie, and tennis shoes.

She rolled her eyes. "You need better fashion sense." She smirked.

"Unlike you I'm not a clone from the magazines." I said bitterly.

"What's that supposed to mea-" She started to say, but we were interrupted when mom came in, Buffy quickly threw some clothes on top of her weapon chest and pretended to be looking for something else to wear.

"Girls?" She asked. "What are you doing?" She questioned.

"Uh…" I said and looked to Buffy, I hated when mom confronted us like this. See, me and mom don't exactly have a close relationship, not like her and Buffy at least. I'm more of the independent one. Buffy tells mom a lot of things, except for the fact that she's a slayer, that kind of has to be kept secret.

"We're going out." She said quickly. Mom stood up tall and spoke in a very strict tone.

"No." She said. I raised an eyebrow. She said no to Buffy? That's a first.

"What?" Buffy asked in disbelief.

"We have to go out." She whined.

"No, you are not going out tonight. I got a call from Principal Flutie, you girls have been skipping classes." She said.

"Buffy made me." I said before thinking. Mom looked at Buffy and then me.

"That's not setting a very good example for your sister." Mom scolded. Buffy dropped the blouse that was in her hands.

"Setting a very good example? She's not that much younger than me. I don't want to have to constantly look out for her! I've got my own problems." She said angrily.

I sighed, this night wasn't going too well.

"We'll discuss this issue another time." Mom said firmly. "Now, I know it seems like the end of the world to you girls because you can't go out, but it's not. So if you want too, come downstairs and I'll make dinner, or you guys can sit up here and sulk." She said, and left the room, closing the door behind her.

I sighed. "Now what are we going to do?" I asked helplessly.

She ignored my question and turned on me, looking like she was about to flip out. "What the hell was that all about? Blaming me?" She said through clenched teeth. I backed up.

"I-I didn't know what else to do." I said, I didn't want to get into a fight with her.

"Well try thinking for once." She hissed. "You can't use me as a crutch, and if you keep on trying to then you might end up dead." She said. "This is dangerous." She said sighing. "I'm not just talking about with mom or the bullies at school, I'm talking about out there, the vampires, I won't always be there to help you out of a sticky situation." She explained.

"You hardly ever have." I said quietly.

She squinted her eyes at me. "This… this isn't the time, let's focus on the issue at hand." She said changing the topic.

She loaded up on weapons in a bag, wooden crosses, stakes, and just in case a crossbow.

"How are we gonna get out of the house?" I asked. She nodded to the window.

"How else?" She said as she opened it and climbed out onto the roof, when on the roof she climbed onto the tree branch right next to her window, she then slowly worked her way down the tree.

I took a deep breath. I was terrified of heights, I mean terrified. I edged my way down the tree and stood next to Buffy. We left immediately and headed to the Bronze. We got there and as suspected, it was packed, and not only that, the invasion had begun.

The vampire, Luke, the Vessel, was already inside feeding.

"Come on." She groaned, hoping we weren't too late. We got in there, and I saw Luke on the stage of the bronze, there was a long line of people, waiting to get their blood sucked, the person who was up there with Luke right now, was Cordelia.

"Can't we just let him have her and save the others?" I asked Buffy hopefully. She shot me a glance.

"Kidding. Kidding." I reassured her.

"Whatever, go find the others, tell them to get these people out, I'll deal with Luke." She said.

"Okay. Will do." I said, I ran to the back of the line and warned the others to start getting people out; Buffy had begun to fight Luke.

I felt a tap on my shoulder, I turned around and there was an angry vampire. He threw me backwards and into a group of people. "Argh…" I muttered as I stood up, painfully.

I ran over to him and kicked him in the stomach. He was fazed but not for long, he grabbed my leg and pulled me out from under my feet. Suddenly I was on my back and he was on top of me, about ready to bite me.

"GET OFF!" I screamed and kicked him in the face. He shook his head and fell backwards. Then it was my turn to jump on top of him. I held him down and punched him 3 times, receiving one punch in the face in return, then I got out the stake Buffy had given me and plunged it into the place where his heart should've been. He turned to dust.

I turned around, the people were shocked and terrified. Willow, Giles, and Xander helped take out the rest of the vampires, Willow poured holy water on the one known as Darla. And Xander, reluctantly, staked Jesse in the heart. Turned out Buffy tricked Luke into thinking it was daylight, the trick worked, cause she stabbed him right in the chest, and he, like the others evaporated, soon all the vampires either were turned to dust, or for their own sakes, decided to run for it.

Most everyone had left by now, all clearly freaked out by what had happened. Buffy and I went home.

"That was pretty awesome." I told her as we climbed up to her bedroom window.

"Yeah, well, I couldn't have done it without you, Xander, and Willow." She said grinning. I grinned back. It was like 1:00 AM, and we had to be up at 6:00 AM for school.

So we decided to turn in. The next day whenever we got to school (this time we attended all of our classes) we met up with Xander and Willow.

They still seemed pretty upset about Jesse. "Nothing's ever going to be the same…" Xander said slowly and let his voice trail off.

Cordelia and the rest of the students were all debating what had happened last night, no one seemed to want to believe that paranormal things happen. I can't blame them to be honest. Right before class started we all went to the library. Giles sighed, "Sunnydale is on top of the hellmouth, you do know this means that there will be many more battles against evil in the future right?" He asked us. We all exchanged glances. I was a bit nervous, but I knew he was right.

We all agreed, as long as we were together and working as a team, we knew we could do just about anything.


	4. witch

**Hey guys I'm gonna start switching character POVs and focus on their personalities a bit more, also I might throw in a few different plotlines or my own in later chapters. **

**Cora's POV**

It was a Monday, Me and Buffy were sitting in the library with Giles before classes started.

"I'm gonna try out for cheerleading." Buffy stated. This got Giles attention.

He looked up, "Buffy, now, I don't think that's such a good idea." He said nervously. I bit my lip.

"Why not?" She demanded.

"Well, it just… Uhm… you're a slayer. You're not supposed to be going around shaking pompoms, you're supposed to be out there fighting evil." He said uncertainly.

"I can do both." She said confidently.

"Remember what happened last time you were on the cheerlead squad?" I smirked. She turned around and glared.

"Stay out of this, Cora." She snapped. I held up my hands.

"Easy killer…" I muttered. Giles sighed and closed the book he had.

"Well, if you're sure, then yes, of course, there's no reason to stop living your life I suppose." He said, trying to convince himself.

"I knew you'd understand!" Buffy said. "Try outs start after school." She said, we went through the school day as boringly as possible..

"You guys coming to the tryouts?" Buffy asked us, Willow and I said we would, Xander didn't like the sounds of it.

So whenever we were there, watching, one girl named Amy was up. She was doing quite well. Until she started smoking, I realized the sun was shining on her through the window, but it wasn't that hot.

Everyone was staring. "Uhh…" Someone said.

"That girls on fire!" Willow shouted. Her hands had exploded, she was burning up.

Buffy wasted no time in yanking a curtain from a window and jumping on the girl to put the fire out.

"It's okay…" She said. "It's okay." But she didn't look too convinced herself. Well, I guess Amber was one less person for the others to compete against, but I still felt bad for her. We were all outside the next day just hanging out when all of a sudden a car was going mad in the parking lot, it took down a fence.

"Who is driving that car?" Xander exclaimed.

"Student driver?" I suggested.

"Even I wasn't that bad as a student driver." Willow said.

Buffy squinted her eyes.

"It's Cordelia." She muttered, she then got up and ran out to the car.

"Uhhh…" I said. Xander and Willow's eyes widened.

"What is she doing?" Xander asked.

"Lord knows." I muttered.

Just then the car stopped in the middle of the road, Cordelia got out of the car, she looked dazed, as she walked around uncertainly.

It looked like she was saying something. I didn't think she was able to see.

Then I saw a huge semi truck heading straight towards her.

"She's gonna get hit!" I yelled.

But of course, Buffy jumped and tackled Cordelia out of the way, saving her life.

Everyone crowded around Buffy and thanked her, and then they turned their attention to Cordelia to see if she was okay.

Buffy came back over to us with a worried look on her face.

"What was that all about?" Xander asked curiously.

"I-I don't know…" She stuttered. "It was like she was blind." Buffy said. We all exchanged glances. Was this the work of something paranormal? I was hoping not.

"So now what?" I asked looking at the others.

"We should see Giles; I can do some more researching if necessary." Willow said, a bit too enthusiastically, I could tell she really liked to research things.

We all agreed that it would be best to take this up with Giles, and we did.

"Interesting…" Giles said as we explained what had happened. "I'm not for certain…" He said as he took his glasses off to clean them, "But I do know that blinding ones enemy is often a technique that witches use." He said meekly.

"But who would the witch be?" Xander said.

"It's obviously someone who is against the cheerleaders." Buffy said, "People's hands don't just explode without any cause, and people don't go blind randomly." She said sighing.

Soon cheerleading tryouts were over, there was this one girl who seemed really upset about only being a substite. Her name is Amy. Buffy attempted talking to her. She kept on saying her mother would kill her if she didn't make the squad. And that her mother was the head cheerleader at Sunnydale when she was in high school. She then stated that she would do anything to get on the squad.

"Anything huh?" Xander asked suspiciously.

"Like set someone on fire and blind someone." Willow said.

"Okay so you guys think Amy is a witch?" I asked.

"Yeah…" Buffy said, "I'm just not for sure." She said hesitantly.

"I know what you mean." Willow told her. "Amy's so nice." She said biting her lip.

"Whatever is going on I think it's cause of her mother putting so much pressure on her." Buffy told all of us.

"So now what do we do?" Xander asked us.

We all turned to Giles. "Do you always expect me to solve all the problems?" He asked us. We stared at him. "Oh alright. There is a spell you can use to tell if she's casted a spell." He said.

He gave us all the information, we needed eye of newt, quick silver, aqua fortis and some of Amy's hair.

"Where are we gonna get all of that?" I said bewildered.

"Science lab." Buffy said. "Duh." She said impatiently. I sighed.

"Okay." I said simply. We waited until science class, obviously, we have science in 4th hour.

Xander, Willow, and I mixed up all the ingredients while Buffy made an excuse to go over and talk to Amy. She pretended to drop her pencil and bent down to get it and snatched some of the hair off of Amy's hairbrush in her bag.

Then she walked away. "Got it." Buffy muttered as she placed the hair down on the table.

"Great…" Xander said and put the hair in the spell. "Now… We have to make an excuse to go over there again and this time for you to spill this on her." He said.

"Uh… I got this." Buffy said. I bit my lip.

"Hope this works." I said.

Buffy walked over and commented on Amy's vial. "You're mixture is purple…" She said. "Mine's green. That's a bit odd, can I see your instructions?" She asked and lent down, but "lost" her grip on the vial and it fell out of her hand and onto Amy's hand.

"Ugh…" Amy muttered. "Be more careful would you?" She hissed. Just then someone started screaming.

We all jerked our heads to the side of the classroom, a girl, yet another cheerleader who'd made the squad ahead of Amy, had lost her mouth. Like literally, her mouth was gone.

"What on earth!" I exclaimed.

"Oh god…" Buffy murmured.

Willow and Xander were also in shock, the whole class was. The teacher was trying to calm everyone down; including the girl who'd lost her mouth.

She was taken to the hospital. Class was dismissed early and as we all went to lunch we concluded that Amy was indeed a witch and had been casting spells. Soon it was the end of school and Buffy and I went home.

I was hanging out in her room for a while. She has a charm bracelet she always wears. "Buffy where's your bracelet?" I asked her.

"Uh…" She said and started looking through her stuff. "I-I don't know." She said strangely.

"But whatever! I feel so gooood!" She exclaimed. I raised an eyebrow.

"Are you feeling okay?" I asked her.

"Of course I am little sister!" She said and wrapped an arm around me. She was acting really strange. I was confused, I decided to go to my room and call Willow and tell her about Buffy's strange behavior.

**Xander's POV**

I got home that from school that day and started thinking about how much my life has changed in just a couple of weeks since the Summer girls moved here. I actually felt good and like I was doing something for once. They needed my help. Or at least they acted like it and tried to include me, both me and Willow. We never have had much luck with friends, and no one ever relies on us. So it felt good.

Another thing stirring inside of me… Buffy is amazing. I really have begun to like her. I have talked to Willow about it, I'm sort of afraid to talk to Cora though, afraid she may tell Buffy. Although I don't think they have the closest relationship, they're always bickering. I guess I'll just see how things go. One day maybe I can tell Buffy how I feel. It'd be nice if she felt the same way. Right now I had other things to deal with.

I was on my way to my room when my dad stopped me. "Take the trash out." He snorted.

"Okay…" I muttered without looking at him. He grabbed me by my hair and pulled it up so I looked at him.

"You look at me when you talk, boy." He said and pushed me to the ground. I hated when he got like this, from the smell of his breath, I could tell he'd been drinking. We never get along, ever. I don't get he along with him or my mm. They're both drunks and treat me like dirt on the sidewalk.

I stood up, I wanted to yell at him or something, but I knew it'd make the situation worse. I took the trash out and then headed towards my room, I smelled something burning in the kitchen. "Oh great…" I muttered, "Mom's trying to cook again. Either she'll burn the house down, or the food she cooks will come alive and eat me before I get the chance to eat it." I said under my breath to myself.

I went upstairs and did my homework and started thinking about what was gonna happen tomorrow with the whole Amy being a witch thing and what we were gonna do to stop her. Buffy hadn't exactly figured that plan out yet.

I got a call from Willow not too long after that.

"Xander?" She asked.

"Yeah?" I said.

"Uhm, I got a call from Cora earlier, she said Buffy is acting really strange. Like overly perky." She said nervously. I bit my lip.

"Well, she's probably just… tired…" I concluded, "It's nothing to worry about, I'm sure she'll be fine tomorrow." I reassured her.

"Oh, okay… that's good." She said and then asked me, "So… how are things?" She said, I could hear a hint of fear in her voice.

I sighed, she knew some things that go on at home. "Dad's being a dick as usual, mom ignores the way he treats me. Nothing out of the usual." I said, it was pretty hard for me. I knew that Willow also had some issues at home, more mentally then physical though.

"I'm sorry to hear that…" She said sincerely, "My parents are too busy with their own lives to even notice me." She said. That made me think, what's worse: To have parents that hate you and treat you horribly. Or to have parents that neglect and ignore you completely.

**Cora's POV**

Buffy was still acting strange the next day. Whenever cheerleading practice came after school I was about worried for her to participate, and I had good reason. Buffy was so out of it and acting like a lunatic that she threw the flyer through the ceiling! And just in case no one knew, the flyer isn't actually supposed to fly, apparently Buffy didn't get the memo.

"Let's get her out of here." Xander muttered, me, Willow, and Xander guided Buffy out of the gym while the other cheerleaders whispered mean things about Buffy and crowded around the flyer, she had a broken ankle.

"Ya know, Xander…" She started to say, "You're not like other guys." She said drunkenly.

"Really?" He asked, as he put his chest out to look extra manly. "I'm not?" He said. I rolled my eyes, it was obvious he's trying to show off.

"No, you're kind, sensitive, easy to talk too, you're totally one of the girls!" She said. I smirked and started laughing, Willow tried to contain her smile, but it came up anyways. Xander blushed, he looked embarrassed.

"Well, I'm glad you… think that." He said, sounding a bit disturbed. He was one of those guys who tries to act really manly but fails epically, he's cool either way.

Soon after Buffy's… incident, we found out that Amy was now officially on the squad. Lucky her.

We decided to go to Giles and confront him about Buffy's strange behavior.

"She's been this way since we got home yesterday…" I explained, she wasn't so perky now, but she was looking weak.

"That is a bit odd…" Giles said and cleared his throat, "Yesterday, when she was by Amy's desk in science class, did she by chance… give Amy something that belonged to her?" He asked curiously.

"I don't think so…" Xander answered. "Why would she?" He asked with a shrug.

"A gift of gratitude for not making the team?" Willow suggested.

I laughed. "I don't think she did… but… she always wears a charm bracelet, and, well it was gone yesterday… So, maybe Amy took it." I said hopefully.

Giles looked worried.

"What's wrong?" We all three said at once.

"Well, if Amy did take Buffy's bracelet, it's possible that she may have performed a vengeance spell. Cursing Buffy." He said and looked it up in his spell book.

"Oh dear…" He muttered, "It says here that the vengeance spell causes the victim to act strangely, exactly the opposite of their personality, before…" He gasped and didn't say anything.

"Before what?" I asked impatiently.

"Before killing them." He concluded.

I gulped.

"What?!" I hissed.

"We've gotta do something." Xander said standing up.

"Maybe if we go get Amy we can make her stop." Willow said.

I shook my head, "She's too powerful! She could curse all of us!" I said.

"Cora's right… I'm afraid, the only thing we can do… is pay a visit to Amy's mother's house and confront her about this issue, if she is the reason that Amy is behaving this way, maybe we can get her to lay off." He said, "It is worth a try…"

"Well we've gotta try something. Anything." I said frantically. I noticed Buffy was getting weaker and she staggered when she stood up.

"We've gotta go! Now!" I said to Giles. He hesitated and then agreed, he told Xander and Willow to stay at the school and keep an eye on Amy.

Giles quickly drove us to Amy's house, it was like a castle, even the gateway looked like the entrance to a castle. It was huge and beautiful, I might've admired it and compared it to our house had it been on any other occasion.

We walked up to the door with Buffy holding on to my shoulder and Giles arm.

Giles knocked three times. Someone's eye appeared through the peephole.

"Whose there?" It whispered.

"We're friends of Amy's." I said solemnly.

"Amy's not home." The voice said and closed the peephole.

"I'll kick this door down." I muttered to Giles.

"No." He said sternly. He knocked again.

"This is urgent, it isn't Amy we wish to see." He said.

The door opened halfway.

We didn't even ask to come in, we just did.

"Why are you putting so much pressure on your daughter to be on the cheerleading squad?" Giles asked.

"I-I'm not." Amy's mom stuttered.

"We know that you are." Buffy said weakly. "Why else would she be cursing people trying out for the team?" She asked barely above a whisper.

Amy's mother, her name is Catherin by the way, bit her lip.

"Amy's not the one doing it." Catherine said.

"So you are?" I accused taking a step forward, but Giles held me back.

"Not exactly…" She muttered.

"Are… are you Amy?" Buffy whispered.

"Buffy, no she's not Amy." I said. I turned to Giles, "Now she's delusional." I whispered to him.

Catherine looked scared. "I-I am. My mother… is obsessed with cheerleading, it's all she cares about. She's the witch! She switched bodies with me so she could relive her glory, she's the one who's been cursing everyone at school." She said in a rush.

"Well what do we do to stop her?" I asked.

Amy shrugged, "I really don't know… I'm afraid to get involved. You don't know what she's capable of!" Amy said in fear.

"Oh yes we do. She made a girls hand explode, she blinded someone, made someone's mouth disappear, and she's killing my sister!" I said gesturing to Buffy. Amy sighed.

"I don't know." She said again. "Her… Her "evil lair", as I like to call it is upstairs." Amy said.

"Show us." Buffy said weakly.

Giles and I helped Buffy hobble upstairs. I was starting to get scared. What if we couldn't save Buffy in time? I shivered at the thought of that and tried to put it in the back of my mind.

"Here it is…" Amy said and led us into a dark, dimly lit room. It was like an evil lair nearly.

"Woah." I said and looked around. Then I saw it, there was a cauldron with this type of thick, green liquid in it. It reminded me of Goosebumps, Monsters Blood.

"That's disgusting." I said and turned away.

"Oh my…" Giles said under his breath. He looked and saw there were several dolls, voo doo dolls perhaps? They weren't just any dolls, they were designed as the cheerleaders. One doll was blinded, the other didn't have a mouth, and so on and so forth.

"She's using voo doo." He concluded. "It appears that she has put a spell on these dolls to affect the girls. We need her spell book." He said finally.

"Where is it?" I asked looking around.

Amy shrugged. "I don't know… can we hurry up? What if she comes home early?" She said feebly. I could tell how frightened she was. I didn't really understand what it's like to have a parent who puts too much pressure on you to be like them, but I do know what it's like to have a parent that doesn't understand you. I know it sounds cliché, but it's true.

"Check the chest." Buffy said as she slipped to the floor.

I went over and helped her up while Giles opened the chest.

"MEOW!" A cat hissed and jumped out of the chest.

"Nice kitty." He said as it ran out of the room. He grimaced and searched the chest, he came across a large, old book, it looked like a spell book.

"Does it have an eyeball?" I asked. Everyone looked at me strangely.

"What?" I snickered. "Winnie had a spell book with an eye, from Hocus Pocus." I said with a smile. Everyone else smiled too, but right now really was hard to be so joyous.

We put everything back in place except the spell book obviously, then we went back to the school, with Giles driving like 90 miles per hour, we got there in maybe 30 seconds?

"We must hurry." He said. Meanwhile, Amy/Catherine was in the gym, cheering. We went to a vacant class room. "Come in. Come in." Giles said in a hurry.

He pointed at me and said to go find Xander and Willow and stay guard outside the door.

"Got it…" I looked at Buffy. "She'll be okay right?" I asked, I needed to be sure.

"Yes, she will be. I'm going to first break the spells put over her and the other girls, and then switch Amy and Catherine's bodies back." He explained. I raised an eyebrow.

"Good luck." I said, and went outside.

**Willow's POV**

Xander and I were sitting in the gymnasium watching Amy cheering.

"It's disgusting what she's done to get there." Xander muttered to me, I agreed. Just then Cora came running up to us.

"Guys, come with me. I'll explain!" She said and grabbed our arms and tugged, we followed her quickly into the hallway and to a vacant classroom, we didn't go in though. She told us some crazy story about Amy's mom switching bodies with her. I was in shock. I'd never thought of that, but I did know that Amy was way too nice to want to hurt anyone on purpose.

"So what do we do?" Xander asked eagerly. He seemed to love all these excited adventures Buffy and Cora brought us into.

I gnawed on my fingernails as we waited. I was a bit nervous. I get nervous often, and very shy.

Just then we heard someone angrily storming down the hallway, it sounded like lockers were opening and slamming shut.

"I doubt that's from the wind." Xander whispered.

"I don't think so." Cora answered back.

"It's probably Catherine, or Amy, or whatever she is." I said.

We ran towards the sound and saw her coming down the hallway with fire in her eyes.

""GET OUT OF MY WAY YOU PESKY LITTLE TWERPS BEFORE I TURN YOU ALL INTO WARTY FROGS!"

"We've gotta stop her!" Cora said. She charged at her and jumped on her. She attempted to hold her down, but she must've used a deflecting spell that threw Cora backwards into a wall. She landed with thud and tried to get back up.

"Hey!" Xander shouted.

I sighed heavily. "This can't be good…" I muttered to myself.

He grabbed a broomstick that was laying in the hallway and pretended to be doing karate or tae kwon do or something, he first hit himself twirling it around in the air. Then he ran at her with it, that backfired though, and she grabbed the end of the broomstick and threw it over her head with Xander still holding on, he landed in the middle of the hallway and slid into a trashcan.

"Uh oh." I muttered. It was my turn to try and slow her down.

I grabbed the fire hydrant extinguisher off the wall and sprayed the white mist at her, it clouded her eyes.

"Argggh!" She griped. It looked like we'd done a good job so far.

I threw the fire extinguisher at her when she tried coming towards me, big mistake, she waved her hand violently at me and suddenly I found myself flying backwards and landed in a trashcan.

I moaned as the pain shot through my body, I quickly shook it off, seeing that Cora and Xander had recovered.

"Throw stuff at her!" Xander shouted.

Cora threw a mop at her, Xander and I both threw the trashcans.

"ENOUGH!" She shouted stomping her foot, and once again we were all thrown backwards.

"Ouch…" Cora muttered as she hit her head. She looked so distraught, I could tell she was worried about Buffy.

Xander got up again and started for her, so did I, but we were too late, she burst into the room that Buffy and the others were in.

"Oh no." Cora screamed and ran to the room, we followed.

Just then Amy's body fell.

We didn't pay any attention to that though, Catherine was back in her own body and was trying to attack Buffy, who seemed to have regained her strength. Giles was watching helplessly, he had broken the spells, but it was up to Buffy to fight Catherine.

"Go Buffy!" Cora shouted.

Catherine attempted to shoot a spell at Buffy but Buffy had kicked a vent and it fell just in time to deflect Catherine's spell, instead of hitting Buffy, she hit herself, and suddenly she vanished.

"Woah…" Amy said and shot straight up.

"What happened?" She said. We explained everything, she looked extremely in shock. After that she just went home, we figured we'd talk to her tomorrow, she had a rough day, we all did.

"Thanks for your help guys." Buffy said and smiled at us.

"No problem, what are friends for?" Xander said.

"Yeah, it was kinda fun." I agreed. Cora didn't say anything but just smiled.

"Let's go home, Cora…" Buffy said and yawned.

"That sounds like a great idea." Cora laughed.

"You kids go home and get some rest." Giles said to us, "I think I will go make myself a relaxing cup of tea." He said and headed to the library. We all just laughed and went our separate ways. I had a very rough, but yet exciting day. One thing was for sure, I was glad that I met Buffy and Cora. They've had an amazing impact on my life in such a short amount of time.

**Buffy's POV**

Me and my sister went home and hung out in my room for awhile. She looked like something was bothering her. "What's wrong?" I asked and gave her a nudge. She smiled softly and looked up.

"I don't know, nothing really…" She said. "I just thought I was going to lose you today." She said and bit her tongue. I think she thought I was going to get mad, but I wasn't. I sighed.

"If it weren't for you, Giles, Xander, and Willow you would have." I said to her gently.

"I know I bother you sometimes, and I know I get on your nerves, and you can barely stand me… But today I pictured my life without you, and it was boring, and not to mention lonely." She said with a sigh. I sighed myself.

"You're a good sister. I hope you know that." I said, and she did something she rarely does, she gave me a hug.

"You are too." She said, and I could tell she meant it.

I felt bad for how bad I'd treated her, but it was part of the deal I guess. She's my sister; it feels like my job to be mean to her, but my other job to protect her. She's always done the same for me, and I knew for a fact that she had my back today, all my friends did.

I sighed and laid back on my bed, I knew this wasn't the end. This wasn't going to be the last near death experience we would have.

"I'm gonna head to bed." Cora said and yawned, we were both exhausted. "Night." She said to me.

"Night." I said back and smiled.

I heard her tell mom goodnight and then she went into her room and closed the door.

The next day at school I hung out with Amy. We were by the trophy case, looking at her mom's photo on the cheerleading picture from her days. "Catherine the Great" is what one of the trophies said.

"I wonder where she's at…" Amy said to me.

"I don't know… Could be anywhere." I admitted. "How's things with your dad?" I asked.

She went on about how annoying he is about everything and always encouraging her to do what she wants to do. I could tell though by her voice it didn't bother her as much as she said.

"You're loving it aren't you?" I asked.

She grinned. "Oh yeah." She laughed, I laughed too.

Then headed to class, hoping that it would be awhile till our next mission.


	5. Announcment! IMPORTANT please read

**Hey Everyone, I know that most of you don't like reading the story with it in the middle of the screen. I have tried to fix this but it isn't working. I tried it 8 hours ago and the change still has not been made. I tried again. I don't know if it'll work this time or not. If not, I'm sorry about that, so can you please copy and paste it in a word document and read it the way you think is easiest and I'll make all future chapters aligned to the left. :) Thanks. And sorry about that again. **


	6. Yet Another Announcement

**I apologize guys, I had my next chapter typed out, Teacher's Pet, however due to some technical difficulties word decided to delete it from my computer, so I'm going to have to retype it... NOTE TO SELF: Start saving work on a flash drive. **


	7. Teachers Pet

**Xander's POV**

It was 4th hour biology, Dr. Gregory was going on and on about insects and whatnot. I was trying to stay awake, but I found that nearly impossible. I think out of Me, Buffy, Willow and Cora, Willow was the only one that paid any attention at all in biology.

I laid my head down and fought to keep my eyes open, but I failed epically.

I was at the Bronze with Buffy, we were just talking, chilling, and playing pool; she was flirting with me. Suddenly a vampire jumped from the ceiling and picked Buffy up by the throat. "You've met your match slayer!" He said menacingly.

"Xander!" She choked, "Help me!" She said her face was full of fright.

"Put her down wise guy." I said threateningly.

I kicked him in the back and he dropped her. He turned around and gaped at me in terror.

"W-who are you?" He stuttered taking a step back. I smirked at him.

"I'm your worst nightmare." I said and picked him up by _his_ throat with my left hand and with my right hand I skillfully stabbed my pool stick in his chest. He evaporated into dust.

"That'll teach him to mess with my girl." I said and twirled the stick around before setting it down.

Buffy stared at me in awe. "My hero." She whispered. I simply laughed and gave her a passionate kiss before walking up on the stage and taking a guitar. "This one's for you, baby." I said and pointed to Buffy who was standing directly in front of me.

"Xander…" Buffy whispered. "Xander…" I felt something hit my arm, a piece of paper.

I looked over to the desk beside me, where Buffy was sitting by Cora. Buffy had thrown a piece of paper at me.

"You're drooling…" She whispered.

"Wha-?" I began and then felt the side of my mouth, sure enough; there I was, slobbering like a baby. I quickly wiped my mouth and my face turned red. Buffy gave me a sympathetic smile, Cora was over there laughing.

Buffy glared at her and elbowed her. I rolled my eyes, those two were always fighting.

Then they started bickering.

"Miss Summers." Dr. Gregory said.

"Yes?" Buffy and Cora said at the same time.

"Buffy." He corrected himself.

**Buffy's POV**

Xander had been drooling all over his biology papers, I woke him up and smiled sympathetically, meanwhile my sister was over here laughing at him. I had elbowed her and told her to knock it off, but then Dr. Gregory called me out.

"Yes sir?" I said nervously.

"What is the answer to the question?" He asked, peering over his glasses.

"What question?" I asked confusedly.

Dr. Gregory sighed. I bit my lip, great, another teacher that is gonna hate my guts. I looked to Cora for help, but she hadn't been paying attention either and just shook her head and shrugged.

She's such a big help. I then saw Willow pointing at her nose and then at Xander.

"BO?" I asked aloud. The class erupted in laughter, including Cora, but when she saw my angry face she stopped.

"Thank god someone pointed that out." Sneered Blayne.

"Smelling." He said and sighed loudly.

"Is there anything else you would like to ask Miss Rosenburg? He asked. Just then the bell rang. I got up and began walking out of the classroom as fast as I could.

Dr. Gregory stopped me. Willow, Xander and Cora were waiting for me by the door, I waved them on.

"Yes, Dr. Gregory?" I asked timidly.

"I am aware of your past at your old school." He said.

I sighed and my face fell.

"Look, I know it doesn't look that good bu-" He stopped me.

"And I wanted to let you know that it doesn't bother me at all. Don't worry about those other teachers giving you a hard time, focus on your studies and you should be just fine." He said kindly with a smile. I laughed and smiled nervously back.

"Thanks, Dr. Gregory." I said happily. He nodded.

"I can tell a good kid when I see one." He said. I smiled widely before leaving.

I caught up with Cora, Willow, and Xander at lunch.

"How many detentions did you get?" Cora teased. I glared at her.

"None. Dr. Gregory likes me." I informed them. Willow raised an eyebrow, "I thought for sure he had it in for you." She said, obviously relieved I'd come out in one piece.

"Looks can be deceiving huh?" Xander said taking a bite out of his pizza. We all laughed.

"Well, at least you didn't get detention, mom wouldn't be happy." Cora stated, that was obvious.

I rolled my eyes at her, we continued eating and talking.

As the day came to an end and Cora and I went home, I got a call from Willow.

"Hello?" I asked, I was in my bedroom, Cora was in the shower.

"Hey, Buffy, you and Cora want to meet me and Xander at the Bronze tonight at 7?" She asked, it was 5:00 right now.

"Uhm… I can go, Cora's not feeling up to it." I lied. The truth was, I didn't want Cora to go, I don't like having to share friends with her all the time, I share everything else with her, at our old house we had to share a room.

She got out of the shower and I was getting dressed up.

I walked out of my room at around 6:30. She came out of her bedroom.

"Where are you going?" She asked curiously.

"The Bronze." I answered.

"Oh, cool. I'll come." She said and began to follow me downstairs.

"No!" I countered.

"What?" She asked taken aback.

"Uhm… You can't come." I said with a sigh.

"Why not?" She asked.

"Because Xander and Willow don't want you too." I said quickly. Her eyes suddenly grew wide, she looked hurt, and I knew it. I bit my lip and tried to keep myself from caving in.

"But…" She said. "I thought they liked me." She said quietly.

I was quiet for a moment, "They do…" I said.

"Then why don't they want me to go?" She asked sadly.

"Because… because you're annoying." I said, it was the only thing I could think of. She glared.

"Yeah, whatever…" She said and stomped into her room and slammed the door.

My mom yelled up the stairs.

"Everything all right up there girls?" She asked.

I closed my eyes and breathed in.

"Fine." I called down to her as I made my way down the stairs.

"Where are you going honey?" She asked.

"The Bronze." I answered.

"Did you see if your sister wanted to go?" She asked, I had to lie to my mom, that was difficult.

"Yeah, she's too tired." I answered quickly. My mom looked worried.

"Oh dear, I hope she's okay…" She said. I nodded quickly.

"She's fine… She's fine." I said.

Mom smiled. "Okay dear, well, have fun. Be home by midnight." She ordered. I smiled.

"Got it." I left and went to hang out with my friends, a sister free night, I was going to enjoy it.

**Cora's POV**

I couldn't believe it; my sister flaked out on me. Okay, maybe I could believe it. I thought Xander and Willow liked me; I was friends with them first. Lord knows what Buffy told them about me. I decided I'd go for a walk, I knew Buffy had probably told mom I wasn't feeling good or something, I thought about going down and telling mom the truth about Buffy not letting me go, but that'd only make Buffy mad at me, and she's not pleasant to be around when she's mad.

I ended up climbing out of the window, down the tree, and into the yard, and then I started walking to nowhere in particular. I just wanted to get away from here. Part of me wanted to walk away and never come back, that'd make Buffy and the others sorry for ditching me. I ended up walking past the school, through the park, and where did I end up at? The graveyard. I was hoping no vampires were out and about today.

"That'd make Buffy's day if I got eaten by a vampire, wouldn't it?" I said aloud to myself. I wasn't sure how long I had been out, but it felt like a long time, maybe an hour or so. I turned around, ready to start heading back, and I saw none other than Angel. I gasped in shock when I saw him.

"You scared me." I breathed out relieved when I saw it was him. He gave me a small smile.

"What are you doing out here by yourself all alone? Shouldn't you be with your sister and your friends?" He asked curiously.

I bit my lip and looked down. "They made it pretty clear they didn't want me around…" I muttered irritably.

He sighed, "Ahh… I see. Well, seeing as though you're here, I might as well tell you the same thing I told Buffy when I saw her… Watch your back, strange things are gonna be happening soon on the hellmouth. Beware of a guy with a fork." He warned.

I raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking abou-" I started but didn't finish my sentence. I heard something behind me, I whirled around, nothing was there, I turned back to face Angel, but he was gone. I scoffed.

"That guy is on the weird side." I said and shook my head and began to walk out of the graveyard.

"Not so fast." A voice said behind me, I turned around, and there was a male vampire and he looked hungry. I stared at him in fear.

"Oh boy…" I murmured to myself.

"I see you got dinner." Said another voice, this one was a girl, she stepped out from behind a tombstone.

"Uh… Hey guys…" I said with a small laugh. Maybe I could distract them? Why hadn't I taken a stake with me?

They started walking around me and taunting me.

"P-please, don't do this." I said trying to reason with them.

"Shut up." The male vampire hissed and punched me in the stomach.

"Aggh!" I screamed in pain as I knelt forward. They started laughing.

The girl kicked me in the back, causing me to fall face first onto the ground.

They were having a lot of fun beating me up. I punched the girl in the face, sending her flying backwards, but not for long, and she wasn't very happy either. She lunged at me and was about ready to lean in for the kill.

I whimpered. She grunted at me, disgusted. The male vampire smiled.

"Why the rush, don't you think we should savor the flavor?" He asked. Which really meant, don't you think we should torture her before killing her?

They kept on kicking and punching me, I tried fighting, but it was difficult. Then all of a sudden I heard a shout.

"Hey!" The voice said.

**Buffy's POV**

I had a lot of fun at the Bronze without my sister, I felt a bit bad though, I tried shrugging it off. I ran into Angel and he had leant me his coat, I thought that was really sweet. However he had warned me about some guy with a fork. He had been injured by him. It was weird. Whenever I got home at 11:00 I decided to try and talk to Cora. I knocked on her door and received no answer.

"Come on Cora, let me in." I said impatiently, finally I just walked in, and she was gone, the window was open. I closed my eyes and sighed, assuming she wasn't already dead, I was gonna kill her.

I went all over town looking for her, if mom found out that I hadn't let her come and she ran off because of that she'd kill me. I went to the graveyard, sure enough, there she was, being tormented by two vampires.

"HEY!" I shouted. They looked over to me.

"It's the slayer!" The guy hissed.

"Get the hell away from my sister." I said through clenched teeth as I grasped my stake.

"If you say so." The girl said as she threw Cora and she hit a tombstone.

I cringed, that looked painful, but I had other things to worry about right now.

"You shouldn't have done that." I said as I kicked her in the face, punched her and then dove my stake into her.

"Your turn." I said to the guy, he tried running, but I was too quick, I kicked him down and staked him in the chest. I ran over to Cora. She was conscious, but her head was bleeding a little bit. She wiped it off, she was pretty tough, we're both used to frequent injuries.

"What were you thinking?" I asked her angrily.

She stood up and glared at me. "I was thinking I had it under control." She lied. I scoffed at her.

"Oh yeah, if I hadn't got here they'd have torn you limb from limb." I said bitterly.

"You would've loved that wouldn't you have?" She asked me angrily.

"Sometimes." I said before thinking, as soon as I said it I regretted it, the look Cora gave me was horrible. I could tell I'd hurt her feelings with everything tonight.

"Cora, I didn't mean it." I tried. She shook her head.

"Save it. I know the only reason you ever let me tag along or even bother protecting me is because mom wants you too." She said tenderly.

"That is not true." I said defensively.

Cora kept on being rude towards me. I sighed and finally gave up. We walked home and ignored each other the rest of the night and most of the next day. I just hoped she wouldn't be hostile to Willow and Xander; that would cause a lot of problems, and I'd be held responsible.

Finally when 4th hour biology came around, Cora was still ignoring me, and Xander and Willow were trying to figure out why she was mad at them. Something I noticed in particular was that Dr. Gregory wasn't there.

Then Principal Flutie came in, he cleared his throat. "I regret having to tell all of you… Dr. Gregory has been missing since last night, until he is located you will have Miss French here as your substitute teacher." He explained grimly as Miss French, a beautiful younger woman stepped into the room. I gasped.

Everyone started whispering about what could've happened.

"Settle down everyone." Principal Flutie said and left, leaving us with Miss French. The boys immediately turned their attention towards her.

A guy named Blayne that Xander is always competing with whistled. Xander's jaw dropped and he was looking like a lovesick puppy. In fact, all the guys were looking at her like lovesick puppies.

Miss French peered at Blayne.

"Yes…" She looked at her clipboard. "Blayne?" She asked. He gulped.

"Oh, I was just wondering if you'd be picking up where Dr. Gregory left off." He asked.

She nodded. "Yes… I will." She said mysteriously and picked up a container holding a creepy bug. I called them stick bugs when I was younger, but they're really called praying mantises.

She went on to explain all about how the female praying mantises produce offspring and mate with male mantises. It was pretty gross.

Not to mention she got super defensive whenever I called them bug ugly. I shrugged it off and just wrote in my notebook and took notes the rest of the class period. Towards the end of class Miss French asked who would like to come and help her make duplicate praying mantises eggs after school.

Nearly all the boys raised their hands. The highest hands of all were Blayne and Xander's. I bit back laughter. Miss French pierced her lips.

"Hmmm..." She said trying to decide who to pick. She pointed at Blayne. "Come to my room after school." She said smiling. Blayne fist pumped the air. "Yes." He said smoothly. She then looked at Xander. "You can help me tomorrow." She told him. He drooled.

"Okayyy." He said dreamily. I exchanged glances with Willow who laughed. Cora just ignored it. I sighed and bit my lip. Her attitude was getting annoying.

Then we went to lunch. Cora avoided us the entire time. I was in the lunch line with Willow and Xander. Blayne passed by Xander and teased him about being 2nd on Miss French's list. He scoffed and tried to come up with something witty but failed.

We continued talking whenever Cordelia rushed past us carrying a piece of paper.

"I had my allergies list sent into the school today, I have to follow a certain diet." She said as if she were the most important person in the world. She went to the cabinet in the kitchen.

"ARGGGH!" She screamed when she opened it.

I gasped and ran over to her. There in the cabinet was Dr. Gregory, headless.

"Oh my god…" I whispered. Xander gagged and dropped his tray of food. Willow nearly fainted. Cordelia didn't look too good herself. After I got over the initial shock I went over to Cora who was outside eating by herself.

She looked like she was about to say something mean until she saw the look on my face.

"What's wrong?" She asked nervously.

"Dr. Gregory's dead… Cordelia just found his body. Headless." I gulped. She bit her lip and put down her food.

"Buff… I'm so sor-" She started to say.

"Save it." I said between clenched teeth. She was shocked at how harshly I said it.

"We're going to the library to talk to Giles about it." I said at last.

"So…?" She asked.

"So you're coming with us." I said and grabbed her arm. She knew I wasn't in the mood to argue so she just did what I said. We went to library and Xander and Willow were already there talking to Giles. I gulped and sat down. My eyes were tearing up again.

"Who would want to hurt Dr. Gregory?" Willow asked softly. Giles frowned.

"I… I don't know. He didn't have any enemies on the staff as far as I'm aware." He said looking troubled. "He was a good man… I liked him." He said sadly.

"Me too…" I said glumly. Xander sighed and sat down.

"Don't worry guys… We'll find out who did this." He said at last. Cora looked like she wanted to say something but was afraid.

"Could… Could it be the master?" She asked abruptly.

Giles weighed the options. "Possibly…" He said slowly. "But I don't see why the master would want to hurt Dr. Gregory." He said and bit his lip.

"The same reason he wants to hurt anyone." Xander said and stood up. "To make himself feel better." He said through clenched teeth. I saw Cora glance at me, I met her eyes. She quickly looked away. I could tell she was afraid.

"It could be something else…" I shrugged.

We all agreed to keep our eyes open.

The day came to an end and Cora and I went home, mom wasn't home, she had left a note saying she was going to the store.

I was extremely upset about what had happened. I was digging through my closet looking for something to wear. I was going to patrol tonight. "CORA!" I shouted angrily. She had been in my closet. I could tell because some of my stuff was on the floor, and my favorite blouse was missing!

I slammed the closet door shut and stomped to her room.

I didn't even knock, I just pushed it open. She was on her bed listening to the radio.

"What are you doing?" She asked sitting up. I glared and shut off the radio.

"Why the hell were you in my closet?" I asked through clenched teeth.

"I wasn't!" She said, looking honest, but I knew she was lying.

"You're a freaking liar!" I said and stepped closer to the bed.

She stood up and I was full of rage, I really was. I don't even know why.

"Buffy, I swear I didn't take anything!" She said in defense of herself.

"Yeah right…" I mumbled.

"Just get out of my room!" She ordered. I scoffed.

"Mom's not here to protect you right now!" I mocked her. She backed up against the wall.

I was about ready to tear into her.

"Leave me alone…" She said desperately. I raised my fist, suddenly I heard a door close. Mom was home.

"You're so dead." I said and pushed her onto the bed before running downstairs to tell on her.

"Mom… Mom… Cora stole my blou-" I stopped whenever I saw my mom. She was wearing the blouse. It wasn't Cora after all.

Cora had followed me downstairs. When she saw the blouse on mom, and then my face, she turned back and ran upstairs.

"Sorry I took your blouse Buffy, I had nothing to wear. I haven't had time to do my laundry yet." She explained. I stuttered.

"Oh... I-it's fine." I said distantly.

"What's wrong with your sister?" She asked as she began putting groceries away.

I shrugged and looked away. "No clue…" I muttered.

"I'll go see." I said quickly and went upstairs again and knocked on Cora's door.

"Cora… I'm sorry!" I said through the door. It wasn't the blouse that I was mad about. I was mad about Dr. Gregory's death, and I was taking it out on Cora. She ignored me. I sighed and just gave up. I went to the graveyard to patrol. I was in a gruesome fight with a vampire. This vampire wasn't just any vampire though. He had a claw where his right hand should've been. I remembered Angel's warning.

Was this the guy who he'd been talking about? I didn't have long to think about it, whenever I heard sirens and somebody scream "HEY!" it was the cops. The vampire ran off into the night. I didn't hesitate to get out of sight either.

After the police had gone I continued on my way through the graveyard. I leant up against the fence and saw Miss. French. She was carrying groceries and walking home. I thought it was kind of late for that, but I'm the girl who hangs out at graveyards every night.

The vampire snuck up behind her. I bit my lip and prepared to hop over the fence and take action if he tried something.

To my surprise when she turned around and glared at him he staggered backwards and ran away. She smirked and turned back and continued on her way. I gasped.

I ran home and climbed in through my window. I had to tell Cora. I opened her door without knocking. She was sitting there on the bed, still awake.

"Why can't you EVER knock?" She snapped at me. I shrugged and told her about Miss. French.

She stared at me. "So…?" She asked impatiently. I couldn't believe it, is she really that stupid?

"So…" I said more impatiently, "She's not human!" She sighed heavily.

"Yeah, whatever… it's late, you're overthinking, get out of my room and go to bed." She said and rolled over.

I was about to argue but then decided if I did we'd get into a fight and wake mom up.

The next day when I was headed for biology class Mr. Flutie stopped me.

"Yes?" I asked him.

"You saw the body?" He asked hastily.

''Uh… Yeah." I said hesitantly. What was this about?

"You have to heal!" He said and put his hand on my back and half escorted me half pushed me to the guidance counselor's office.

"Really, Principal Flutie… That's not necessary." I said with a small smile. "Uh… I'll be late for class." I said, it was the best excuse I could think of.

"Oh yes… very late!" He said. "You need to heal. If you ever… EVER need a hug I'm here for you! Well… of course not a real hug… we're not allowed to hug the students! But you know what I mean." We had reached the guidance counselors office.

"Sit!" He ordered.

"But…" I began, but he interrupted me.

"Sit. Heal. No discussion!" He said and walked off, in the guidance room I heard Cordelia already talking to the counselor going on about how she'd lost almost a whole pound since finding Dr. Gregory's body. She didn't seem to upset about it either, the whole loosing weight thing.

I couldn't help but laugh at her hopelessness. Finally whenever I was able to go back to class, it was 10 minutes until it was over, they were having a pop quiz I saw, from looking in the window. I saw Willow writing away, Xander daydreaming, and Cora looked like her head might explode from thinking.

Then, again, to my shock, Miss. French turned her head all the way around, I mean, all the way, like 180 degrees, to see who was at the door. I gasped and ducked out of the way. I bit my lip and practically ran to the library to see Giles.

"What is the rush?" He asked as I bolted in, he closed the book he was reading.

"We've got a problem…" I said and explained everything that had happened.

"Oh my… It sounds as if she's an insect." He said uncertainly.

Just then Cora and Willow came into the library.

I filled them in quickly.

"Hey, have you guys noticed that Blayne wasn't here today." Willow said. "He was supposed to work with Miss French after school!" She said worriedly.

I was busy reading. "That's right…" I said distractedly. Then I came upon it. "Praying Mantises can turn their heads 180 degrees!" I said abruptly.

Cora laughed. I stared at her.

"What?" She asked defensively.

"If she is a praying mantis then it is possible that she is responsible for Dr. Gregory's death, and she might have kidnapped Blayne!" I said irritably.

Willow suddenly went pale.

"What is it?" Giles asked her.

"Xander is supposed to work with her today after school!" She said standing up and began pacing.

"Don't worry, I'll warn him." I told her.

"Good luck with that." Cora encountered.

"Why?" I asked.

"Haven't you seen the way he looks at her?" She asked as if I should know what she was meaning.

Willow ignored all of us and began typing away on one of the computers, she had pulled up the school website.

"Blayne's parents reported that he never came home last night." She said absently. Cora looked worried, so did I and Giles.

**Xander's POV**

I was asked to stay after class for a moment to talk to Miss French.

"Oh, Xander…" She said sadly.

"I've done something really stupid." She said guiltily.

"What? You? Do something stupid? No." I said and shook my head.

She gave me a small smile.

"I forgot the ingredients for our experiment at my house… And I have a meeting in 30 minutes, so… If it's not too much trouble, I don't suppose you could come to my place tonight at say 7:30, we can work on the project there." She said and leant forward.

I could've swore my heart stopped, Miss. French was inviting me to her house. I just nodded.

"S-sounds good!" I said a little too enthusiastically. She smiled.

"Well, I'm going to have myself a little snack before I head off. I'll see you tonight." She said sexily.

I nodded again and walked out of the classroom dazed.

Buffy came running up from behind me after school.

"Xander!" She said. I turned around and smiled.

"Oh, hey Buffy." I greeted her.

"I need to talk to you." She said seriously.

"What's up?" I asked.

"It's about Miss. French." My eyes went groggy

"Yeah?" I asked. "She's great isn't she?" I said dreamily.

"Uh… No. In fact, she's not human." She said in a quick tone of voice.

"What do you mean she's not human?" I asked, I stopped walking and faced her.

"I mean she's a bug." She said and went on with some crazy story about how Miss French was a bug and was going to eat me and whatnot. I looked up.

"Wow…" I said angrily and faced her. "Wow…" I said again.

"What?" She asked.

"I can't believe this." I said.

"I know it's hard too, bu-" I stopped her.

"No. I'm not stupid Buffy! You're just jealous that I'm attracted to another woman other then you! You can't handle the fact that someone else, someone older, might actually like me!" I accused. She shook her head.

"Xander, no, that's not it…" She began, I stopped her.

"Just stop… I gotta go." I said, and walked away, disgusted.

I couldn't believe her. I was so mad, I couldn't even think straight.

Finally it was 7:00 and I headed to Miss. French's house. I got there, knocked on the door, she opened it and was wearing a very beautiful, short, black dress.

"Woah…" I whispered.

"Oh…" She said shyly as she let me in the house. "Is this too much, should I change?" She said blushing.

I smiled nervous, "Change? No. No, it's fine!" I said quickly.

She smiled. "Alright then, have a seat." She said gesturing me to the living room.

I walked in and sat down. "So, let's get started." I said clapping my hands on my knees, she was in a rather sexual position on the couch. She had a couple of wine glasses on the coffee table and a bottle of some type of drink.

There was a fire going in the fireplace. I shifted nervously.

"Xander… I don't know what it is, but I feel so connected to you." She said in a dreamy voice, she moved from her seat in the armchair to next to me on the couch.

"I feel the same for you." I said, I wasn't even thinking, all I knew was this was the moment I've been waiting for.

"Have you ever been with a girl?" She asked me.

"Oh, yeah… Tons of them." I said and started sweating, she gave me a strange look.

I sighed, "Yeah… No." I admitted. She giggled.

"I can tell." She said and gave me a kiss on the lips. I kissed back greatly, but then… I started thinking of Buffy.

"I love Buffy…" I murmured.

"Have a drink." She said and pushed the wine glass up to me. I smiled at her; took a few sips and nearly gagged. It tasted horrible. Suddenly the room was spinning. I looked at Miss. French, her hands were not hands anymore, they were claws!

"Wow… this drinks really getting to me…" I mutter incoherently, and then everything went blank.

I was out for I don't know how long, and when I woke up I was in a cage.

"What the…" I muttered and sat up, my head was killing me.

Someone was moaning in the cage next to me.

I went over there, and there was Blayne.

"Blayne?" I whispered, "What's going on?!" I asked him hurriedly.

"Xander, man, you gotta get me outta here!" He whined.

"What is going on!?" I repeated.

"It's Miss. French, she's a giant praying mantis! She's going to have us fertilize her eggs, and then… She's gonna mate with us, and rip our heads off in the process!" He said practically crying.

I pulled at my hair. I was so freaking stupid, this is what Buffy had been trying to warn me. I let out a fearful sigh.

"Don't worry." I said, trying to convince myself not to worry, "We're gonna get out of here!" I tried to reassure him.

I grabbed the bars between me and Blayne's cage and ripped it apart.

"Thanks, dude! Now I can get out of my cage." He said and crossed over. "Into yours!" He said, glaring. "What'd you do that for?" He asked.

"Weapon." I told him, just then Miss French, that giant, ugly bug, came towards us.

"Oh no… no no no no no…" Blayne was moaning, he grabbed me and buried his head in my shoulder, normally I'd have pushed him off, but I was so scared I did the same exact thing.

"Take him!" Blayne said pointing at me, he's the one who broke your bar!" Blayne said, throwing me under the bus.

"Thanks a lot man." I said, and slugged him in the shoulder.

I had to figure out a way to get us out of here, I just didn't know how.

**Willow's POV**

I was freaking out, Xander hadn't listened to Buffy so there was no telling where he was. Giles had called his friend who worked with praying mantises, his friend was psychotic and in a psych ward, but it was the only thing we had. After Giles got off the phone he came back and told us about the She Mantis.

"The she mantis lures in virgin men as her pray, she mates with them, and then ultimately kills them." He said and breathed out slowly.

I exchanged glances with Buffy and Cora.

"Well, Xander's not a virgin, he's probably, well, I bet… He's probably just…" Buffy stopped.

"Gonna die!" I finished for her, I ran to the phone and called his parents who said he was working on a project at his teachers house. I came back and told the others.

"What are we gonna do now?" Cora asked hesitantly.

"I don't know…" I said and sighed heavily.

"Buffy?" I asked her.

She bit her lip, "Giles, can you record a bat sonar? I know that the sound weakens the praying mantises. Cora, Willow and I will look up Miss French's information." She said going into command mode.

We discovered Miss French was born in like 1907, making her nearly 90 years old.

"She's extremely well preserved." Giles said as he finished up.

We all raced to Miss French's house.

A nice old lady opened the door.

"Is Natalie French here?" Buffy asked her hurriedly.

"Why yes, that's me dear." She said sweetly.

We all looked at each other. Buffy turned back to me and the others.

"She's not here!" She huffed. The REAL Miss French looked shocked.

"Yes I am, I'm right here!" She said nicely.

Cora sighed.

"Sorry, Miss French… We must've got the wrong address, thank you for your help." She said and we walked away.

"Now what?" I said close to tears.

Buffy decided to track down the vampire she saw flee from Miss. French, she beat him up and he showed us where her house was, after he showed us he tried to attack Buffy, she killed him gleefully.

She turned back to us. "Come on." She said and kicked the doors down.

We searched the house and came upon the basement.

"XANDER!" I shouted, seeing Miss. French hovering over him. He was tied up and she was about ready to mate with him.

She jerked her head towards us and hissed.

"Oh boy…" I muttered fearfully as she bounded towards me and Cora.

She picked Cora up with one of her claws, about ready to kill her, Buffy rolled underneath her and grabbed a can of insect repellent and sprayed Miss French in the eyes, she quickly dropped Cora, who rolled out of the way and stood up next to me.

"Time to finish you off!" Buffy said as she took out the recorder, she tried to turn it on to the bat sonar, but all we was a speech Giles was giving.

"GILES!" She shouted angrily, he was untying Xander.

"Wrong side!" He screamed back as he got the last knot and Xander was free.

"Ugghhh." Buffy groaned at him, that gave Miss French just enough time to knock the recorder out of her hands, it slid towards Giles who picked it up and turned the bat sonar on. This entire time Blayne was yelling "UNTIE ME UNTIE ME!" Finally I went over and helped him and let him out of the cage.

The bat sonar weakened the she mantis enough for Buffy to stab it with a stake, like 50 times.

She sighed relieved, we all did. "Xander." I mouthed and hugged him. He smiled.

"Thanks for saving me guys, and Buffy. I'm sorry I didn't believe you." He said gratefully. Then Xande took a bat and destroyed the rest of the she mantis eggs.

"My father is a lawyer…" Blayne told us, "If any of you speak a word about any of this to anyone, I will have you all arrested for the rest of your lives! Got it?" He said hatefully and left.

Xander rolled his eyes, we all just laughed, then we went our separate ways, I didn't know about the others but I was gonna sleep well tonight.

**Buffy's POV**

I was exhausted from the excitement, my sister and I went home and climbed through the window.

I exhaled and stopped her before she went to her own room.

"Buffy, please…" She said, she thought I was gonna lash out on her, I could tell.

I held my hand up to stop her.

"I wanted to thank you, we couldn't have done it without you… I'm sorry for taking my anger out on you." I said, this was one of the first times I'd apologized to her.

She shrugged. "It's what sisters do…" She said with a small smile.

She was right. We went to bed. The next day we all hung out at the Bronze, this time I let Cora come, while her, Xander, and Willow were all talking, I saw Angel, I tried to give him his coat back, but he declined it. I smiled and thanked him, and then he was gone.

The next day, when we had a new biology teacher, I saw Dr. Gregory's glasses lying on the floor. I frowned and picked them up, I looked at them for a good minute or so, I was going to miss him a lot. I placed them where they belonged in the closet of his room. Then I sat down next to my sister, and listened to the boring lecture our new teacher was giving us.


End file.
